–Cabinet to be approached for funds

MINISTER of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn has confirmed that the government will be moving ahead to rebuild the Brickdam Police Station, which was recently destroyed by fire due to arson.

The reconstruction of the central police station is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and according to Minister Benn, Cabinet will be approached for the necessary funding.

“The very fact that we have identified that we will rebuild; restore. The fact that we are meeting today says that this is what we will do; we will rebuild, restore and build better,” Minister Benn stated.

On Saturday last, approximately 80 per cent of the Brickdam Police Station was destroyed by the fire, which officials said started at around 11:00hrs in the upper reaches of an eastern building in the precinct’s compound.

The police headquarters, a wooden structure, housed the Officers’ Mess Hall, the Traffic Department, and the Inquires and Criminal Investigation Departments (CID), as well as the prosecutors’ and commanders’ offices.

Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, said that the destruction of the station has put hundreds of prisoners, whether innocent or guilty, along with their families at an inconvenience.

“Whenever these acts [of arson] occur, whether they [the perpetrators] do it to a school or they do it to a police station, the people of our country are affected; Guyana is set back,” he said.

The Legal Affairs Minister noted, too, that the burning down of the station will also have an adverse effect on the Magisterial District of Georgetown, since most of the files from the criminal justice system were housed in that very building.

(Excerpted from the DPI)